NBA Draft chatter: Brian Windhorst thinks Cavs looking at James Wiseman

Brian Windhorst believes James Wiseman is the prospect the Cleveland Cavs want to draft.

For the third offseason in a row, the Cleveland Cavs will head into draft that’s considered one of the biggest in franchise history.

It’s hard to argue with the importance because if the Cavs get it right, their rebuild will accelerate. Get it wrong, and well, continued irrelevancy.

With the draft being bumped backed to October, and the lottery results on hold until Aug. 20, there’s been more than enough time to play the draft guessing game.

James Wiseman, LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards are regarded as the top three prospects. Theres also been a case for Dayton big man Obi Toppin.

Entering year three of a rebuild, the pressure is on the Cavs to start figuring things out, which means figuring out out how their core pieces fit together.

With that in mind, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, appearing on TheLandonDemand.com, zeroed in on Kansas product James Wiseman. The longtime scribe thinks one of the reasons the Cavs traded for Drummond was to see how Darius Garland and Collin Sexton would fit playing with a true center (9:50 mark).

"“One of the reasons I think the Cavs traded for Andre Drummond, was they wanted to see how Sexton and Garland and Porter would play with a true center as they headed into the draft, in a draft that may want do everything they possibly can to get James Wiseman. I think the Andre Drummond transaction was partially looking forward to Wiseman, the possibility of Wiseman. And they’d like to see that play out a little bit, for sure fact that Garland and Porter haven’t played much and you’d like to give them time.”"

Windhorst also noted how other than Wiseman, the draft is particularly guard heavy, and with the Cavs dedicating lottery resources to the past two year’s picks, selecting another guard doesn’t exactly makes sense.

That could mean a trade, whether it’s doing whatever they need to do to get Wiseman and/or trading Sexton or Garland to create a better fit.

Wiseman seems to be the guy the Cavs are really zeroing in on, according to Windhorst’s beliefs (23:41).

"“I think that’s the guy [Wiseman] they’ve really been looking at.” (23:41)"

Sexton would be the player other teams want, as he’s established value as a shooter and a scorer in his two seasons.

In the there games he played at Memphis, Wiseman averaged 19.7 points, 10.7 blocks and 3.0 blocks per contest. Wiseman left the Tigers in December, following a suspension handed down by the NCAA alleging he had taken $11,500 from coach Penny Hardaway to help move his family to Memphis.

The NBA Draft will be Oct. 16, while the Cavaliers will find out the lottery order Aug. 20.